Twenty Five

This Dubhed selection was brought to you today by the letter T and the number 25, for no other reason than it's the twenty fifth day of the fifth month of the year twenty twenty five. 

The usual eclectic sounds here today, spanning dance, prog, psych, soul, rap and pop. You'll also find a few artists hidiing in plain sight, from the likes of Love And Money, Hawkwind, XTC and, er, Gary Numan's former backing band.

Oh. and a blistering version of 25th Floor by Patti Smith, which is just brilliant.

1) 25 Years: Sugartown (2018)

2) In The Year 2525 (Special Dance Mix) (Cover of Zager & Evans): Visage (1983)

3) 25 Hundred Friends: Coeo (2021)

4) Riding To Work In The Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now) (Alternate Version): The Flaming Lips (1997)

5) 25th Floor (Live @ The Old Grey Whistle Test, BBC TV): Patti Smith Group (1978)

6) 25 Years (Single Version): Hawklords (1979)

7) 25 Minutes To Go (Live, Udine, Italy) (Cover of Shel Silverstein): Diamanda Galás (1996-97)

8) Twenty-Five Miles: Edwin Starr (1968)

9) Twenty Five Years: Saint Etienne (2012)

10) Oh! Twenty Twenty Five (7" Version): Dramatis (1981)

11) Under 25: Enny (2021)

12) 25 O'Clock: The Dukes Of Stratosphear (1985)

1968: Twenty-Five Miles EP: 8

1978: Live On The Old Grey Whistle Test 1978 (bootleg MP3): 5

1979: 25 Years EP: 6

1981: Oh! Twenty Twenty Five EP: 10

1983: Fade To Grey: The Singles Collection (Special Dance Mix Cassette): 2

1985: 25 O'Clock EP: 12

1998: Malediction And Prayer: 7

1999: Waitin' For A Superman EP: 4

2012: Words And Music By Saint Etienne: 9

2018: Goosebumps: 25 Years Of Marina Records: 1

2021: Support Ukraine Compilation: 3

2021: Under 25 EP: 11

Twenty Five (51:20) (KF) (Mega)

Junk Garage Clear Out

Side 1 of a cassette compilation recorded by my friend Stuart in late August 1991.

 

This was the closing paragraph when I posted Side 2 in January 2022:

 

Junk Collage (do you see what I did there?) by me, ripped from various magazines and adverts. I can easily spot Buddy Holly and Christian Slater in there. I think the main picture was a toilet wall backdrop to a photo of a music artist, but I've forgotten who.

Some of the typeface has worn away, but you get a sneak preview of what will eventually pop up when I post Side 1. The reason I didn't go with that one today is that the tape opens with an expletive-ridden intro, but one which segues perfectly into a Neil Young & Crazy Horse track. I'm debating whether it stays, goes or is edited in some way before posting. Watch this space...it might be a while.

 

A glance below and a few seconds into today's selection and you'll see and hear that I decided to keep Dumpy's Rusty Nuts in. It's now so ingrained after three decades of listening to this mixtape that it's almost impossible for me to hear Over & Over by Neil Young & Crazy Horse without it.

Many years later, I repaid the 'favour' by including the Dumpy's Rusty Nuts intro on a birthday CD that I compiled for Stuart. One for a future post.

I'd returned to Bristol after a year travelling, so this cassette served as a kind of 'this is what you missed whilst you were away' round up of music in 1991. In addition to a tremendous comeback albums from Julian Cope and Throwing Muses, Teenage Fanclub released the Star Sign EP, a precursor to the mighty Bandwagonesque album later that year.

 

The Fat Lady Sings made two appearances on this compilation, having blown Stuart away when we saw them supporting The Psychedelic Furs in 1990. They didn't - and have never - quite had the same impact on me but I like the B-side featured here, a good example of the quality and quantity of their music at the time.

Stuart had also been delving into some rock classics, this tape probably being my first introduction to Horses by Patti Smith and Exile On Main Street by The Rolling Stones. I'd taken the Neil Young & Crazy Horse and Mazzy Star albums with me on my travels, so these were already classics, in my opinion.

 

It's another much-loved and much-played cassette, containing songs that have stayed with me over the last thirty-odd years and sound every bit as good now as they did then. 

 

1) Intro / Over & Over (Album Version): Dumpy's Rusty Nuts vs. Neil Young & Crazy Horse (1990)

2) Fall On Me (Album Version): R.E.M. (1986)

3) Free Money: Patti Smith (1975)

4) To Reach Me: The Go-Betweens (1986)

5) Be My Angel: Mazzy Star (1990)

6) Happy: The Rolling Stones (1972)

7) Safesurfer (Album Version): Julian Cope (1991)

8) Momento Mori: The Fat Lady Sings (1991)

9) Counting Backwards: Throwing Muses (1991)

10) Like A Virgin (Cover of Madonna): Teenage Fanclub (1991)

1972: Exile On Main Street: 6

1975: Horses: 3

1986: Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express: 4 

1986: Life's Rich Pageant: 2

1990: bootleg live cassette / Ragged Glory: 1

1990: She Hangs Brightly: 5

1991: Arclight EP: 8

1991: Counting Backwards EP: 9

1991: Peggy Suicide: 7

1991: Star Sign EP: 10

 

Side One (45:07) (Box) (Mega)

Side Two here

Can You Hear It?

Between 1976 and 1979, I was between 5 and 8 years old, arguably living my best life. Primary school, hot summers, bags of penny chews and sweets from the newsagents, Look-In ("The Junior TV Times"), Tom Baker as Doctor Who, Star Wars at the cinema, annual holidays near Tenby and day trips to Weston-super-Mare, the open air swimming pool at Chippenham or (if we were lucky) the pebble-or-sand beach at Weymouth. 

I was too busy and too young to pay much attention at the time to punk, post-punk or alternative music. Although the odd snatch on Radio 1 stuck with me, I discovered much of this music a few years later, when I was older, angrier and looking for music that I could turn up loud and annoy my parents with. The rest I sought out even more years later, when I was (considerably) older, wiser (debatable) and still angry (and that's just the government).

I don't have a contemporary emotional connection to these songs though some resonate with particular periods in my teens and twenties and they will always be very special to me. A few come from some of my favourite albums of all time, but I'll leave you to decide which ones they may be.

 

1) So It Goes: Nick Lowe (1976)

2) The Pictures On My Wall (Single Version): Echo & The Bunnymen (1978)

3) I Found That Essence Rare: Gang Of Four (1979)

4) Repetition: The Fall (1978)

5) The Unconventional: Japan (1978)

6) Fade Away And Radiate (Album Version): Blondie (1978)

7) Frederick: Patti Smith (1979)

8) Search & Destroy (Live) (Cover of The Stooges): The Dictators (1977)

9) I Can't Be (Demo): Ramones (1976)

10) Whip In My Valise: Adam & The Ants (1979)

11) Limelight (Album Version): XTC (1979)

12) My Shadow In Vain: Tubeway Army (1978)

13) Mortice Lock: Associates (1979)

14) Cities (Alternate Version): Talking Heads (1979)

15) Sound And Vision (Live @ Earls Court, London): David Bowie (1978)

16) I'm A Lover: David Johansen (1978)

17) The Card Cheat: The Clash (1979)

Can You Hear It? (56:53)

Years & Years & Years

Nothing clever or sophisticated about today's post, just a mix of 'year' song titles, in chronological order. I've taken a liberal attitude to the song's actual meaning: I mean, 1234 by Feist could be a paean to the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty if you stretch your imagination, couldn't it? I'll also make no apologies for including the bowel-troubling Moby remix of The Smashing Pumpkins' 1979 over the original version for the simple reason that there's less Billy Corgan in it. Some are irreplaceable - The Clash, New Order, Prince - but hopefully a few surprises along the way. No surprise that Julian Cope and Andrew Weatherall have snuck their way into yet another playlist, of course.
 
2,111 years, 25 songs, 2 hours, done.
 
1) 1234 (Album Version): Feist (2007)
2) 1300 (12" Version): Putsch '79 (2003)
3) 1517 (Album Version): The Whitest Boy Alive (2009)
4) 1901 (Album Version): Phoenix (2009)
5) 1917: David Bowie (1999)
6) 1959: Patti Smith (1997)
7) 1963 (Single Version): New Order (1987)
8) 1967: The Auteurs (1999)
9) 1969: The Sisters Of Mercy (1983)
10) 1973: The Glimmers (2009)
11) 1977: The Clash (1977)
12) 1979 (Moby Mix): The Smashing Pumpkins (1996)
13) 1981: Public Image Ltd. (1984)
14) 1984 (Summer Of Lovefingers Mix): Lovefingers vs. John Martyn (2008)
15) 1987 (Prins Thomas Diskomiks): diskJokke (2010)
16) 1993: Dananananaykroyd (2008)
17) 1995 (Album Version): Julian Cope (1995)
18) 1997 (Doctor Rosen Rosen Remix): Department Of Eagles (2008)
19) 1999 (Edit): Prince (1982)
20) 2000 (Original Version): RPM (1994)
21) 2001 (12" Remix By Donald Ross Skinner & Hugo Nicolson): Melissa Etheridge (1992)
22) 2012: Gossip (2009)
23) 2013 (Andrew Weatherall Remix): Primal Scream (2013)
24) 2080 (Brenmar Remix): Yeasayer (2009)
25) 3345 (GHP Whole Lotta Velvet Mix By Mark Vidler): The Black Velvets (2005)

Years & Years & Years (1:55:22)